A Japanese Way of Sitting 04

Remodeling House Ideas : A Japanese Way of Sitting 04


Some Words of Caution

For the unaccustomed, sitting on the floor can be unpleasant and even painful. In particular, the formal sitting posture is difficult for today's young Japanese to maintain for long periods, though in fact the informal posture is all that is required in most situations. Cushions can make sitting on the floor more comfortable, as can the use of a small, legless chair. Separate, independently standing armrests also offer some support.

If your feet should fall asleep while you are sitting on the floor, do not attempt to stand up right away. Extend your legs and massage them gently, and try to stand up only after the prickly feeling is gone. If you know in advance that you will be sitting Japanese-style, wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothes. Jeans, for example, will constrict the flow of blood to the lower torso and create discomfort and pain. It is also a good idea to check if your socks have any holes in them before you leave home, rather than discover this after arriving at your destination! Some people even carry an extra pair of clean socks to change into, especially when they know there is going to be a tatami floor.

SUNKEN KOTATSU

Cross Section

In the summertime, the table frame is stored in a floor cavity and covered either with a piece of tatami or wood.

A Japanese Way of Sitting 03

Remodeling House Ideas : A Japanese Way of Sitting 03

Another possibility is to hollow out part of the center of a table and build a small-scale hearth there. Good for use as a kind of barbecue, where food can be cooked and eaten on the spot, or sake warmed, this method is often used in Japanese country-style restaurants. Dishes such as sukiyaki or nabemono, a kind of fondue, are cooked on a gas ring or a hot plate either placed on the table top or else fitted into the table itself. In the rainy climate of Japan, outdoor barbecues are not a very practical idea, so they are brought indoors instead.
Today, one of the most popular household items in Japan is the kotatsu, a low table with an infrared lamp, equipped with a thermostat and a protective mesh, attached to the underside of the table. A cover is usually placed over the table, and another table-like surface is put on top of that. This keeps the heat in under the table, and improves its heating efficiency. Although very simple to use, the kotatsu can, however, be uncomfortable as there is little room for one's legs underneath.

As a result, many people have taken to sinking one part of the floor below the level of the rest and sitting with their feet resting in the resulting hollow, called a horigotatsu. A permanent fixture is created but the table may be removed, and the hole covered, when they are not needed, and the room may be used for other purposes. In a room with tatami, a half-size tatami (3 feet by 3 feet) or a wooden board can be used as a cover, and also provide a kind of display area (see partitioning device). When floor heating is used, it is a good idea to heat both the floor of the sunken area and the floor where people sit. For this, one can use either hot water piping laid under the floor, or an electric mat.

KOTATSU

The table top is covered with wood on one side and felt on the other, ideal for playing mahjong or cards. In the summertime, the infrared lamp can be removed.

A fully assembled kotatsu.

A Japanese Way of Sitting 02

Remodeling House Ideas : A Japanese Way of Sitting 02


Sitting around the Hearth

Before the idea of the chimney was developed in Japan, houses used to have a hearth cut into the floor, and smoke would escape through a window high up on the wall or in the roof. This method is of course no longer appropriate to current living arrangements, but the idea of having a center around which people can sit is appealing. Recently, the popularity of this kind of old-fashioned hearth, the irori, has grown among urban dwell-ers in Japan.

The most important point to keep in mind is the central position of the hearth. Unlike Western schemes where the fireplace is built against a wall, a Japanese-style hearth built or placed in the middle of a room allows a 360-degree area of heating. Moreover, because little or no furniture is used, proximity to the heat source is increased, as well as the sense of intimacy of a gathering.

When installing a hearth in the home, it is important to provide adequate ventilation by placing a hood over the hearth and putting an exhaust duct in the ceiling. The bottom of the hearth should be about 4-12 inches below floor level, and lined with iron or copper sheeting, on top of which ashes or sand should be spread. Incidentally, the Japanese hearth does not normally have a blazing fire as is the case with its Western counterpart. Coals are brought in from outside to provide enough heat to keep a kettle of water hot or to cook a pot of stew, either placed on the fire or suspended by an adjustable hook.

Instead of a hearth, a low table can be used to provide a room with a center. Though an old-fashioned Japanese brazier can still be used as a portable heater, it can also serve as the base of an attractive glass-top coffee table. Whatever the arrangement, cushions placed around the hearth, table, or brazier, will provide comfort as well as a bit of color to the room.

HEARTH AND BRAZIER ARRANGEMENTS

A free-standing heat source provides 360 degrees of warmth.

Types of braziers.

A Japanese Way of Sitting 01

Remodeling House Ideas : A Japanese Way of Sitting 01

The Japanese custom of sitting on the floor instead of on chairs is closely related to the habit of removing one's shoes before entering the house. In the past in a country where it rains an average of 120 days a year, simple dirt-floored rooms would become very damp. Thus floors came to be laid with planks or bamboo raised 1-11/2 feet above ground level, and straw or matting was spread on them for people to sit on. Eventually, as we have seen, tatami came to be used to cover the entire floor. The custom of removing one's shoes still continues today in Japan even in Western-style homes.

Of course, sitting on the floor is not a particularly Japanese custom. It is practiced by many people all over the world, and is quite common on carpeted floors. Furthermore, as the Japanese way of life becomes more and more Westernized, the Western way of sitting on chairs, especially at mealtime or when entertaining guests, has become popular. The wearing of trousers instead of kimono also has the effect of making the knees visible, and destroys the visual poise and balance of the traditional Japanese sitting posture.

Despite these trends, however, taking one's shoes off and sitting on the floor—regardless of whether it is tatami, carpeting, or just wood—still instills in the Japanese a feeling of relaxation. And, as long as some vestiges of the traditional sitting posture remain, the traditionally low perspective or line of sight will continue to influence ways of looking at objects, nature, and even people.

WAYS OF SITTING

A low table with collapsible legs, legless collapsible chairs, and independently standing armrests can be easily moved around and stored away.

A Japanese Tea Ceremony 06

Remodeling House Ideas : A Japanese Tea Ceremony 06

Natural-colored clay is preferred for the walls.

The ideal tea room is surrounded by nature.

Simple lines and intricate patterns coexist harmoniously.

Natural lighting is the only source of illumination

A Japanese Tea Ceremony 05

Remodeling House Ideas : A Japanese Tea Ceremony 05

THE ROOM FOR THE TEA CEREMONY PHOTOS

A corner, a room, a cottage—all may offer a temporary haven where one shares the warmth of friends or finds comfort and peace in solitude.

Guests wait here to be called by the host of the tea ceremony.

The bound stone symbolizes entry into a different world.

The entrance is purposefully narrow.

Natural materials alone are used.

A Japanese Tea Ceremony 04

Remodeling House Ideas : A Japanese Tea Ceremony 04


A Separate World, A Spiritual Shelter

Should one want to make an orthodox tea room, it would be best to refer to a specialized book on the subject for full details. But it may be more meaningful, especially if one is not particularly interested in the tea ceremony, to reconsider the philosophy of the tea room. After all, the physical setting for the partaking of the green tea was designed to be like a tiny cosmos, separated from the daily world, where the mind could become clear, and the harmony between people restored. For people of today as well, with their hectic lifestyles, this kind of spiritual shelter has much to offer. The actual place can be a second home, a cottage next to the house, or simply a room in the house itself. For Americans, a Japanese-style room is already a setting which is removed from their everyday experience. Thus it is not necessary to reproduce a tea ceremony room meticulously.

Above all, it is a question of being able, in the midst of our modern urban existence, to achieve peace of mind by sitting quietly in a tiny room. The need to occasionally retreat even from one's own family might also unintentionally motivate the spirit of today's tea ceremony.

For those who wish to think along more sociable lines, it would be possible to build a tea pavilion outside for garden parties. In this case, it would be better, rather than preserving the closed-in feeling of an orthodox tea room, to use regular-sized shoji and add a veranda to make a more open structure. In the home itself, a small room adjacent to the living room could be used as a tea room for special occasions, and as a recreation or guest room at other times.

WINDOW PATTERNS